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How many people use each railway station?

These figures are not an official release, and they can’t be guaranteed to be entirely accurate. In fact the original included the specific disclaimer:

This document is supplied “as is” without warranty of any kind, either express or implied, including, without limitation, fitness for a particular purpose. So there. You have been warned.

That said, they are from a good source (and are probably the sort of thing that should be routinely released officially).

Each number is the estimated boardings per weekday, from the 2008-2009 financial year, so boardings are likely to have gone up since then — figures elsewhere indicate 2.7% growth in 2009-10, and an expected 8.5% in 2010-11, so about 11.4% over these figures.

The third column indicates whether the station is staffed: F=Fulltime, P=Parttime (usually “Host” peak-hour staffing for Metro stations, but staffed most days until about 8:30pm for V/Line), N=No. Any errors in this third column are mine.

Top of the list, as you’d expect, are the CBD stations.

Station

Weekday boardings

Staff

Flinders Street

76,689

F

Melbourne Central

44,283

F

Parliament

35,621

F

Southern Cross (Spencer St.)

32,827

F

Flagstaff

16,092

F

Following those are the stations serving major suburban traffic generators such as shopping centres and universities, as well as major interchanges to bus and tram.

Station

Weekday boardings

Staff

Footscray

11,417

F

Glenferrie

10,356

F

South Yarra

10,251

F

Box Hill

9,865

F

Caulfield

9,791

F

Ringwood

7,660

F

Oakleigh

6,820

F

Camberwell

6,727

F

Richmond

6,694

F

Dandenong

6,687

F

Frankston

6,067

F

Glen Waverley

5,973

F

Sunshine

5,814

F

As we get through the list, we get to the suburban stations. Some have other connecting public transport services and traffic generators nearby, some don’t.

I was quite surprised to see how low Huntingdale is on this list, given the large numbers of students using it (who would board in the evening when coming back from Monash Uni). Perhaps the counting methodology isn’t perfect. It’s also the highest ranked station not to have fulltime staff.

Station

Weekday boardings

Staff

Springvale

5,572

F

Essendon

5,336

F

Newport

5,243

F

Mentone

4,855

F

St Albans

4,646

F

Noble Park

4,554

F

Reservoir

4,424

F

Laverton

4,365

F

Clayton

4,323

F

Blackburn

4,304

F

Huntingdale

4,267

P

Watergardens (Sydenham)

4,245

F

Mitcham

4,201

F

Heidelberg

4,136

F

Malvern

4,021

P

Prahran

3,880

P

Glenroy

3,721

F

Werribee

3,711

F

Broadmeadows

3,606

F

Hoppers Crossing

3,503

P

Elsternwick

3,501

F

Ivanhoe

3,469

F

Clifton Hill

3,443

F

Cheltenham

3,391

F

Glenhuntly

3,374

P

Nunawading

3,267

F

Balaclava

3,217

P

Mordialloc

3,199

F

Croydon

3,174

F

Windsor

3,151

P

Epping

3,115

F

Ormond

3,073

P

Narre Warren

3,021

F

Bentleigh

3,016

F

Burnley

2,987

F

Thomastown

2,956

F

Boronia

2,945

F

Greensborough

2,941

F

Preston

2,903

F

Eltham

2,856

F

Newmarket

2,855

P

Mount Waverley

2,843

F

Lilydale

2,796

F

Another thing that distinguishes stations is whether or not they have staff. All of the above have part-time or fulltime staff.

Some of the fulltime staffed stations have always been that way because they are needed for operational purposes. Others have been added over the years to fill the gaps between staffed stations, though some significant gaps remain. Most of the part-time (“host”) staff were allocated to stations in order of patronage in 2004.

At this point in the list we hit the first unstaffed station: East Richmond.

Station

Weekday boardings

Staff

East Richmond

2,744

N

Carnegie

2,668

P

Holmesglen

2,581

P

Albion

2,495

P

Surrey Hills

2,487

F

Berwick

2,482

F

Hallam

2,422

N

Murrumbeena

2,421

P

Craigieburn

2,410

F

Watsonia

2,401

F

Yarraville

2,383

P

Auburn

2,361

F

Moonee Ponds

2,340

P

Laburnum

2,317

N

Ginifer

2,227

N

Syndal

2,208

P

Mooroolbark

2,208

F

Middle Brighton

2,180

P

Moorabbin

2,180

F

Sandringham

2,177

F

North Brighton

2,162

P

Hawthorn

2,137

N

Ripponlea

2,129

P

Pakenham

2,113

F

Fairfield

2,081

P

Jolimont

2,080

P

Oak Park

2,043

N

Rosanna

2,027

N

Bayswater

2,027

F

Coburg

2,020

F

Chelsea

2,002

N

Seaford

1,967

N

Macleod

1,960

F

North Melbourne

1,959

F

Heathmont

1,874

N

Heyington

1,862

N

Hughesdale

1,823

N

Toorak

1,822

N

Carrum

1,819

F

Hampton

1,812

N

Cranbourne

1,794

F

Westall

1,782

F

Keilor Plains

1,759

N

Armadale

1,754

P

Pascoe Vale

1,746

P

North Williamstown

1,731

N

Gardenvale

1,730

N

Heatherdale

1,691

P

Regent

1,682

N

Bell

1,668

F

Ascot Vale

1,647

P

Mckinnon

1,638

N

Parkdale

1,637

N

Sandown Park

1,592

N

Belgrave

1,582

F

Highett

1,569

N

Tooronga

1,561

P

East Malvern

1,556

F

Merinda Park

1,537

N

Williamstown Beach

1,524

N

Tottenham

1,499

N

Ferntree Gully

1,492

F

Kensington

1,477

N

Strathmore

1,457

N

Gardiner

1,439

N

Hawksburn

1,433

N

Lalor

1,419

N

Ringwood East

1,409

N

Burwood

1,403

N

Westona

1,399

N

Brighton Beach

1,387

F

Jewell

1,386

N

Altona

1,371

N

North Richmond

1,354

N

Edithvale

1,344

N

Victoria Park

1,339

N

Kananook

1,336

N

Canterbury

1,331

N

Roxburgh Park

1,294

N

Kooyong

1,273

N

Thornbury

1,270

N

Montmorency

1,255

N

Northcote

1,252

N

West Footscray

1,234

N

Riversdale

1,227

N

Glen Iris

1,221

N

Darling

1,211

F

Upper Ferntree Gully

1,208

F

Mont Albert

1,206

N

Anstey

1,196

N

Upfield

1,190

F

Ashburton

1,186

F

East Camberwell

1,178

N

Yarraman

1,176

N

Merlynston

1,171

N

Upwey

1,160

N

Jordanville

1,134

N

Seddon

1,134

N

Moreland

1,123

N

Collingwood

1,086

N

At around the 1000 per day mark see the first two V/Line stations listed: Sunbury and Melton. They’re on this list because they’re part of the Metcard zone system. Sunbury will become a Metro station in the next couple of years, along with Diggers Rest. Melton is proposed to go the same way, but there is no funding for it yet.

It’s perhaps notable that Aircraft, a fair way from the bottom with almost 1000 boardings per day, is proposed by some to be closed once Williams Landing station opens, though it will be over 1km away.

Station

Weekday boardings

Staff

Sunbury

1,082

P

Melton

1,065

P

Royal Park

1,064

N

Glenbervie

1,061

N

Alphington

1,051

N

Batman

1,005

N

Aircraft

957

N

Dennis

939

N

Aspendale

928

N

Spotswood

925

N

Bonbeach

897

N

Patterson

890

N

Keon Park

881

N

Diamond Creek

875

N

Chatham

859

N

Brunswick

851

N

Westgarth

849

N

Ruthven

835

N

Hartwell

782

N

South Kensington

753

N

Croxton

748

N

Macaulay

738

N

Merri

730

N

Gowrie

729

F

West Richmond

722

N

Fawkner

648

N

Beaconsfield

642

N

Eaglemont

625

N

Alamein

612

N

Middle Footscray

606

N

Hurstbridge

603

N P

Williamstown

538

F

Darebin

530

N

Seaholme

515

N

Flemington Bridge

503

N

Rushall

478

N

Jacana

466

N

Willison

317

N

Tecoma

288

N

Wattle Glen

284

N

Officer

82

N

Deer Park

79

N

Diggers Rest

77

N

Ardeer

40

N

Rockbank

13

N

Officer is likely to grow in usage as housing is going in around there at present.

The bottom four are worth noting because they all get only V/Line services. The figures may seem low, but that’s because they get very few trains compared to the others, despite some being in rapidly growing suburbs.

General Motors was also on the original table, but I’ve removed it as no trains serve it and it’s been officially closed since 2002. The Stony Point stations seem to be missing off the list.

A separate figure was given for transfers (presumably between trains): 33,405.

Use your browser’s Find function (usually “Ctrl-F”) to find a particular station on the list.

16 thoughts on “How many people use each railway station?”

Stats like this really grind my gears. You look at stations from Fawkner down and they continue to service these stations despite registering less than 100 boardings per day. Yet they are against extending rail lines to boom areas such as Mernda and built up areas such as Doncaster and Rowville which would easily record more than an average of 100 boardings per day!

PS Did you see the Auditor-General’s report on Road Projects that shows VicRoads does not take into account “induced” traffic in their modelling. i.e. if you build a new road, cars quickly fill them. The AG found: “The traffic forecasts were significant underestimates. Over most of Pakenham Bypass’s length, daily traffic in 2010 exceeded the 2011 forecasts by over 50 per cent and was close to the volumes expected in 2031″.

Apologies I misread “weekday” as “weekly”… suggesting that, stations from Aircraft down are recording less than 1,000 boardings per day. These stations are generally serviced at least from approx 6am till 11pm, that’s 17 hours, means these stations are averaging less than 58 boardings per hour. Some of these stations are located around dense populations such as Patterson (53ppl/hr), West Richmond (42ppl/hr), Alamein (36ppl/hr), Darebin (31ppl/hr) etc.

As I said before, continuance to service these stations is frustrating yet they are against extending rail lines to boom areas such as Mernda and built up areas such as Doncaster and Rowville.

@Matthew, a couple of things here… firstly the incremental cost of continuing to serve a station on an existing line is miniscule. What would you save by closing Aircraft, and what would you lose? Potentially a tiny amount of money saved and 1000 more cars on the roads instead. (And in the case of Aircraft, it would not be unexpected for more of the RAAF base land to be developed into housing in the coming years.)

Interesting to note that Craigieburn is around the 2400 odd mark, comapred to Melton and Sunbury with less than half of that. With all the anti-electrification/losing V/Line arguments going around at the time for Sunbury – what was the pre-electrification figure for Craigieburn? Seems the service frequency outweighs the stopping-at-more-stations effect easily.

Re Huntingdale – I’d imagine the Monash effect may be watered down by it only being highly ‘active’ so to say for the two semesters (2 × 13 weeks, plus O-week if you’re optimistic); plus exams (the near-uni locals mostly going the other way to Caulfield). For that reason I’ve never been keen on having an interim line only to Monash as some suggestions have informally floated around over the years. Rowville/Mulgrave would give a steady commuter demand in what is otherwise a PT black hole.

Having said all that I still thought Huntingdale would be higher for the end-of-Zone 1 effect it also has!!

“Our most recent electrification project, the extension of the Broadmeadows line to Craigieburn and Roxburgh Park in September 2007, has proven extremely successful, resulting in patronage growth of around 250 per cent,” Ms Kosky said.

By the way, of course Coolaroo isn’t in these figures because it only opened in 2010.

It was odd to see a Nth Melbourne so far down the list as well. Although many people travel through it, very few board there. I wonder how this might have changed since the bus for Nth Melb to Melb Uni went in.

I second dfv’s call for a graph nerd to plot this over a map. A layer over a google map, perhaps?

Royal Park actually has someone there, at least in the morning, presumably to point the way to the zoo. Oddly they’re on platform 1, whereas people coming from the city, which one would assume would be the majority of zoo-goers, stop off at platform 2…